Sheet material assembly with interfolded webs including half web folds



9', 196 R. H. FRICK 3,462,043

SHEET MATERIAL ASSEMBLY'WITH INTERFOLDED WEBS INCLUDING HALF WEB FOLDS--0riginal Filed Aug. 19, 1966 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Aug. 19,1969 R. H. FRICK3,462,043 I SHEET MATERIAL ASSEMBLY WITH INTERFOLDED WEBS v INCLUDINGHALF WEB FOLDS Original Filed Aug. 7 19, 1966 .5 sheets-sh et 2 v 19.1969 R. H. FRICK 3,462,043

SHEET MATERIAL ASSEMBLY WITH INTERFOLDED WEBS INCLUDING HALF WEB FOLDSOriginal Filed Aug. 19, 1966 s sheets-sheet 5 United States Patent3,462,043 SHEET MATERIAL ASSEMBLY WITH IN- TERFOLDED WEBS INCLUDING HALFWEB FOLDS Richard H. Frick, Neenah, Wis., assignor to Kimberly- ClarkCorporation, N eenah, Wis., a corporation of Delaware Originalapplication Aug. 19, 1966, Ser. No. 573,585, now Patent No. 3,401,928.Divided and this application June 5, 1968, Ser. No. 734,603

Int. Cl. B65h 13/00 U.S. Cl. 22148 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Alongitudinally folded stack of webs in which each web has its top halffolded back upon itself along the longitudinal center line, with thewebs simply lying unconnected on top of each other to form the stack oradjacent webs being interfolded to form the stack.

This application is a divisional application with respect to mycopending application Ser. No. 573,585, filed Aug. 19, 1966, now PatentNo. 3,401,928 for Machine for Producing a Longitudinally Folded Stack ofWebs.

The invention relates to paper products and more particularly to foldedwebs of paper or other sheet material.

Improved web folding devices or boards have been proposed in both mycopending application Ser. No. 573,585 now Patent No. 3,401,928 and alsocopending application Ser. No. 567,440, filed July 25, 1966, now PatentNo. 3,401,927 of which I am one of the joint inventors. These foldingdevices are of such construction that each device not only allows thedevice to be used for interfolding a web passing over the device with apreviously folded stack of webs, but the device also, on a rethreading,functions to fold the top fold of a web passing over the device backupon itself along the longitudinal center line of the lower fold of theweb.

It is an object of the present invention to -provide a longitudinallyfolded stack of webs, such as by utilizing a plurality of such modifiedfolding devices or boards positioned in series, with the series of webshaving their top halves folded back upon themselves along longitudinalcenter lines so as to provide a stack of webs with Z-type folds and withor without interfolding between adjacent webs.

The invention consists of the novel constructions, arrangements anddevices to be hereinafter described and claimed, for carrying out theabove stated objects, and such other objects, as will be apparent fromthe following description of preferred forms of the invention,illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a partial plan view of a folding mechanism including aplurality of folding boards disposed in a series;

FIG. 2 is a view taken substantially on line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and showingan end perspective view of one of the folding boards of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a view similar'to FIG. 2 but with the folding board being usedin a different way;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the folding board illustrated inFIGS. 2 and 3;

FIG. 5 is a view taken substantially on line 55 of FIG. 1 and showing anend perspective view of another folding board of the folding mechanism;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 but with the folding board being usedin a different manner;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken substantially on line Patented Aug. 19,1969 "ice I 77 of FIG. 1 and showing a stack of paper webs that havebeen folded utilizing the folding mechanism illustrated in the previousfigures;

FIGS. 8 and 9 are views similar to that of FIG. 7 but with the foldingboards being threaded differently to fold the webs differently;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a carton of C-folded tissuesconstituting prior art;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of tissues as folded in FIG. 8 anddisposed in a carton; and

FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic illustration of one of the folding boardssetting forth various dimensions and angles.

of the board.

Like characters of reference designate like parts in the several views.

Referring to FIG. 1 yin-particular, the folding mechanism of theinvention may be seen to utilize two types A and B of folding boards ordevices. The two types of folding boards A and B are alternatelyarranged in a series, with each type B device following a type A deviceand being arranged between two type A devices except for the last type Bdevice in the series.

As seen in FIG. 1, the particular folding device B follows theparticular device A the device A which is identical to the first deviceA follows the device B and the device B which is identical to the deviceB follows the device-A Likewise, in the series of folding devices,devices B B B etc. (not shown), identical with device B willrespectively follow devices A;.,, A A etc. (not shown), identical Withdevice A 7 Referring to FIG. 2 showing the device A each type A devicecomprises flat sheet metal portion 10, 11 and 12 which are preferablymade of a single piece of sheet material folded along lines 13 and 14.The portion 12 may be considered as a base portion preferably used in ahorizontal position; and, as will be observed from FIG. 4, the portion10 extends upwardly and at an obtuse angle with respect to the portion12. The line 14, as will hereafter appear, extends parallel with thepath X of movement of a web or webs passing over the folding board andparallel with the edges of the webs. The portion 12 terminates in anedge 15 which extends at an acute angle with respect to the line 14, theapex of the lines 14 and 15 being at a point 16; and the line 13, aswell as the lower edge 17 of the portion 10, terminate at the point 16.The Greiner et a1. Patent 3,066,932 may be referred to for the preferredrelationship of the flat portions 10, 11 and 12 and the lines definingthe edges of these portions with respect to each other, in order that aweb may pass over the device andbe folded by it without wrinkling or vstretching of portions of the web.

tension 10a by means of which the other end of the board may besupported. An upstanding stud 19' may be provided for supporting theportion 12, the stud extending through the extension 1211 and aplurality of nuts 20 being provided on the stud above and below theportion 12a. The other end of the board may be supported by means of astandard 21 fixed on the table 18 with the portion 10a being fixed to acollar 22 that in turn is fixed on the standard 21.

The portion 10 is provided with a lip-like extension 23 meeting with theportion 10 along the line 17. A slot 24 is provided in the portions 10and 23, and a rod 25 is fixed at one end to the lip portion 23 andterminates substantially above the line 14.

The dispositions of the slot 24 and of the bar 25 are preferably thoseset forth in the co-pending application of Richard H. Frick and HerbertC. Scholz, Ser. No.

567,440, hereinabove referred to, in order that a web passing throughthe slot 24 and over the bar 25 will not be wrinkled, and theserelationships are briefly the following:

Tan N= 20 Tan I'M-g The angle M denotes the angle at which the slot 24is disposed with respect to a vertical line 26 that extends upwardly onthe flat portion 10 from a point 27, which is the substantial point ofintersection of the slot 24 and the inner or folding edge 25a of the bar25. Assuming that the portion 12 is horizontal, the line 26 lies in avertical plane which also includes a line 28 that is a longitudinalcenter line of a stack of interfolded webs, with the plane beingparallel with the direction of movement X of the folded webs. The sideedge of the stack of folded webs, as will hereinafter appear, issubstantially along the line 14, and a line 29 is an imaginary line inthe flat portion 10 extending upwardly and in the same vertical plane asthe line 14. The lines 26 and 29 are, of course, parallel, and the sameis true for the lines 14 and 28. The angle N is the angle between thebar 25 and the line 14 which is parallel with the direction of webtravel X. The angle L is the angle at which the portion 10 extends withrespect to the portion 12. The quantity W is equal to the width of theweb portion which is folded over by the bar 25the quantity W may, forexample, in the case to be hereinafter described, be equal to one-halfthe width of the interfolded stack of webs or one-fourth the width of aweb prior to any folding. The distance 1 is the distance from the line17 to a line 30, which is the distance W in length and which intersectswith both the lines 24 and 29 and is parallel to the line 17. Thedistance e is the component of the distance 1 along the path X, and l isthe distance from the line 17 to the intersection of the bar 25 and theline 14.

A paper web p from a roll 31 of paper web is supplied to the firstfolding device A (see FIG. 1). A guide bar 32 receives the web p fromthe roll 31; and the bar 32 is 4 suitably mounted with respect to thetable 18, at a 45 degree angle with respect to the direction X at whichthe webs pass under the folding devices on the table 18. The standard 21for the device A is provided with a guide roll 33 at its upper end, andthe web p passes from the guide bar 32 onto the roll 33 and from thenceonto the lower face of the fiat portion 10 of the first folding device AAll of the type A folding devices in the folding mechanism areidentical. A type B folding device is a reverse image of a type Afolding device as above described, and the first folding device B in theseries is shown in FIGS. and 6. Each of the devices B basically is madeup of plane sheet metal portions 11 and 12, slots 24 and rods and theseparts are in the same dispositions with respect to each other as havebeen previously mentioned with respect to corresponding parts in a typeA device. The first type B folding device B is supplied with a web qfrom a roll 31' which passes over a guide bar 32' to a roll 33, andthese parts correspond with the similarly numbered parts described abovein connection with the first folding device A The subsequent foldingdevices A and B illustrated in FIG. 1 are similarly supplied with webs rand s respectively, and still additional folding devices in the series(not illustrated) are similarly supplied with webs t, u, v, w, x, y and2 (not shown in FIG. 1).

The series of type A and type B folding devices alternately arranged, asillustrated in FIG. 1, may be utilized for producing an interfolded webas illustrated in FIG. 7.

In this case, the folding devices function substantially the same as thetwe types of folding devices described in the above mentioned patent toGreiner et al., No. 3,066,932; and, in this case, the slots 24 and 24'and the rods 25 and 25' of the folding devices are not used.

For such interfolding, the webs (q to z) passing onto their respectivefolding boards each has a longitudinal one-half of it passing down thelower surface of the plane portion 10 or 10 and under the lip 23 or 23into a path of movement of the folded stack of webs in the direction Xalong the upper surface of the table 18. The other longitudinal halvesof the webs pass under the plane portions 10 or 10', under the planeportions 11 or 11', under the plane portions 12 or 12' and around thefolding edges 15 or 15 so that these halves of the webs are foldedunderneath the first longitudinal halves of the webs. If the particularboard under consideration is one of the boards subsequent to the firstboard A the second longitudinal one-half of the web being folded underthe first longitudinal one-half is at the same time also insertedunderneath the uppermost fold of the stack of webs folded by previousfolding boards.

The operation of the folding board B is particularly shown in FIG. 5,and it will be observed that the left half of the weg q, as the device Bis illustrated in this figure, passes downwardly underneath the planeportion 10' and under the lip 23' to move in the path of travel of theinterfolded webs indicated by the arrow X. The right half of the Web qpasses downwardly on the lower surface of the plane portion 10, aroundthe bend line 13, on the undersurface of the plane portion 11, aroundthe bend line 14', on the undersurface of the plane portion 12' and fromthence around the edge 15' of the portion 12 to thereby underfold thishalf of the web underneath the first half of the web that passesunderneath the lip 23'. The half of the web passing underneath the lip23 is indicated by the web fold q in FIGS. 2 and 5, and the half of theweb underfolded by passing around the portions 10', 11 and 12' isindicated by the web fold q in these figures.

The web p has been folded by the previous board A and the upper fold pof this web has been trained to pass over and to lie in contact with theupper surface of the plane portion 12 of the board B so that as thelower fold -q is folded by the folding edge 15 underneath the top fold qthe fold q is at the same time positioned underneath the top fold p ofthe previous Web p. Thus, the web q has been longitudinally interfoldedby the folding board B with the previoosly folded web p.

The subsequent folding device A functions substantially in the samemanner except that it folds a web from the other side of the stack, andthe similar operation of the board A is illustrated in FIG. 2. As seenin this figure, the right half of the Web r passes underneath theportion 10 and the lip 23 into the path X so as to become the web fold rThe left half of the web r passes underneath the portions 10, 1.1 and 12and from thence around the folding edge 15 so as to be folded underneaththe web fold r to thereby become the web fold r The web fold q of theinterfolded stack of webs leaving the folding device B is trained topass over the horizontal plane portion 12, and the web fold r is therebynot only folded under the web fold r but is also at the same time foldedunder the web fold :1 on the top of the previously folded stack of websso as to complete the interfolding.

The first folding device, A functions in exactly the same manner as thefolding device A except that, inasmuch as the folding board A is thefirst of the series of boards, there are no previously interfolded webs;and the folding board A thus simply has the effect of folding the fold punder the fold 12 The subsequent type A boards function in the samemanner as the type A boards just described, and the subsequent type Bboards function in the same manner as the board B All of the foldingboards, subsequent to the first board A function similarly to underfolda longitudinal half of the web passing over the board as well as to folda longitudinal half of this web underneath the uppermost fold of thepreviously interfolded stack of webs. It will be understood that, forsetting up the folding mechanism, each of the individual webs isthreaded over its respective folding board A B A B etc., and theresultant webs are interfolded by hand in the movement path X; and, inorder to set the machine in operation, the webs in their interfoldedcondition are simply drawn along in the path X by any suitable webpulling mechanism (not shown) so that individual webs are drawn overtheir individual folding boards and along the path X.

The boards A B A B etc., function with respect to webs p, q, r, s and t,in order to produce the interfolded stack of webs which is shown in FIG.7. Referring to FIG. 7, it will be observed that the web fold q liesbetween the web folds p and 12 the web folds r and p lie between the webfolds q and q; the Web folds q and s lie between the web folds r and rthe web folds r and t lie between the Web folds s and s and the web folds lies between the web folds t and t so that the stack of webs iseffectively interfolded. Thus, if the elongate stack of folded webs iscut into segments, the top fold t of the stack may be grasped; and, inpulling and in removing the cut segment of the web r from the stack, thefold s will at the same time be pulled upwardly; and, assuming that thesegment of interfolded webs is in a carton with a dispensing window inits top panel, the top fold s will be partially pulled through thewindow for subsequent removal. This particular arrangement ofinterfolded webs is particularly suitable if the webs are of crepedtissue suitable for facial usage, and the tissues may thus be removedone at a time from the enclosing carton, and each tissue will pull afold of the succeeding tissue into view for ready subsequent usage.Although only the five Webs p, q, r, s and t have been illustrated inFIG. 7, it will be obvious that the succeeding folding boards in theseries will produce subsequent folded webs which are interfolded withthemselves and with previously folded webs in the same manner and withthe same pattern as is illustrated with respect to the webs p to t inFIG. 7. i

In the event that it is desired to produce a non-interfolded stack ofwebs, the slots 24 and 24 and the folding rods 25 and 25 may beutilized. In this case, each of the folding devices is threaded in aslightly different manner with the particularweb followed by the device.

Referring to FIG. 3 illustrating the folding device A it will beobserved that the right fourth of the web r is directed through the slot24 and over the folding bar 25 instead of passing underneath the lip 23with the rest of the right half width of web r. The distance from thepoint 16 to the end of the slot 24 at point 27, in the particular formof the folding device illustrated, is equal to one-fourth the width ofthe complete web r, and the right one-fourth of the web r as it passesthrough the slot 24 and over the folding rod 25 is folded over the otherone-fourth of the web which would otherwise constitute a part of the webfold r if the board A were used as first described. Thus, as isillustrated in FIG. 3, with the slot 24 and the rod 25 being utilized;the folding device A folds the half web fold or width r underneath; aquarter fold r passes underneath the lip 23 so as to remain on top ofthe web fold r and a quarter width web fold r, is folded on top of thequarter width web fold r None of the previously folded webs, utilizingthe boards in this manner, passes over the plane portion 12; and,therefore, there is no interfolding. The web p is folded by the firsttype- A board in the same manner as the web r is folded by the board Aand the web 7 appears as shown in FIG. 3; with a bottom half width foldp and upper quarter folds p and p.,.

The board B functioning in the same manner as do the type A boards asjust described, has the left onequarter of the web q passing through itsslot 24 and over its folding bar 25' (see FIG. 6). The board B folds inthe same manner as the boards A and A but in the opposite direction sothat the board B produces a lower one-half width web fold q and upperone-quarter width folds Q and :1

The boards as used in this manner do not interfold, and the stackproduced by the boards operating in this manner is illustrated in FIG.8. All of the webs are folded in the same manner'so that each has two,one-fourth width, folds located above a full one-half width fold. Thisfolding may be termed a modified Z-fold, and the webs simply lies one onanother. Due to the fact that the type A boards and type B boards foldin opposite directions, the onefourth width folds lie on opposite sidesof the stack and the crease or fold between the quarter width folds liessubstantially on the longitudinal center line of the stack of foldedWebs. If the webs p, q, r, s and t are of facial quality tissue cut intosegments and packaged in cartons with openings in the top panels, thesegments of the individual webs may be withdrawn through the topopenings individually without disturbance of the webs locatedunderneath, since the boards used in this manner do not interfold thewebs. In particular, referring to FIG. 8, it will be observed that theweb p, with its half fold p and its quarter folds p and 2 is located inthe stack completely beneath all parts of the web q. Likewise, the webq, with its half fold q and its quarter folds q and q is located belowall parts of the succeeding webs r, s and t. Also, it will be observedthat the quarter folds p and 11.; extend from the left side of the stacksubstantially to the longitudinal center of the stack while the quarterfolds q and q.,, of the web q also extend substantially to thelongitudinal center of the stack, but from the right hand side of thestack. The other webs alternate from opposite sides of the stack asillustrated. Since the quarter folds of the individual webs extend tothe longitudinal center of the stack, the crease between the quarterfolds of the uppermost Web segment may be easily grasped by a personthrusting his hand through the tissue withdrawal opening in the toppanel of a carton in which segments of the folded webs are packaged, sothat the uppermost web can be easily grasped and withdrawn from thecarton.

It is also possible using the modified Z-fold and using the type A andtype B boards in the manner just described, to interfold the paper webs,and the webs as so interfolded are illustrated in FIG. 9. In this case,each of the boards after the first board A has the lowermost one-fourthfold of the previously folded web trained on and traveling over thehorizontal plane portion 12 or 12' of the board, so that the half foldof the web folded by the particular board is inserted between the halffold and the lowermost quarter fold of the previously folded web.

As previously described in connection with FIG. 6, the folding board Bhas the effect of folding the half width fold q under the fold (1 andfolding the quarter width fold q over the fold q If the fold p of thepreviously folded web is made to travel on and pass over the uppersurface of the plane portion 12 of the board B the fold q is insertedbetween the folds p and p as shown in FIG. 9. The operation of the boardA in utilizing the slot 24 and rod 25 is illustrated in FIG. 3; and, aspr viously described, the board operating in this manner underfolds theone-half width fold r under the onefourth width fold r and overfolds theone-fourth width fold r over the one-quarter width fold r If the fold qfrom the previously folded web is made to pass along and over the uppersurface of the plane portion 12 of the board A the fold r is positionedbetween 7 the folds q and q as shown in FIG. 9. The first folding boardA functions in the same manner as the board A but there is no previouslyfolded web traveling under the board A into which its lower one-halfwidth fold p may be positioned.

The subsequent type A boards and the subsequent type B boards functionin the same manner as just described in connection with the board A andthe board B to fold the lowermost one-half width fold produced by theparticular board in between the one-half width and lowermost one-fourthwidth folds produced by the previous folding board, and thus the type ofinterfolding in FIG. 9 is produced by the boards operating in thismanner. With this type of interfolding, it will be observed that theone-quarter width folds of any particular web having the subscripts 3and 4 are positioned between the one-half width fOlds of the subsequenttwo webs. For example, the folds p and p., from the web p passing overthe folding board A are located between the one-half width folds q and rof the subsequent two webs q and r. As will be observed, on the top ofthe stack as shown in FIG. 9, there are four folds present, namely thefolds Z3, Z4, y and y Each of these folds is one-fourth width andtherefore the fold lines between these folds lie along the longitudinalcenter of the stack. Therefore, assuming that a segment of the stack asillustrated in FIG. 9 is positioned in a carton with a windowed toppanel, the users hand may be reached into the carton through the windowand either of the webs z or y may be grasped in order to remove a websegment from the carton. Since the webs are interfolded, a withdrawal ofone web from the carton acts to pull a lower web partially through thewindow of the carton so as to make it available. In order to increasethe adherence of one web with respect to the other to promote thisaction, the tissue Webs as So folded may be compressed, such as forexample, as is described in Patents 3,172,563, issued to Kenneth J.Harwood on Mar. 9, 1965, and 3,172,564 issued to Kenneth M. Enloe andLeRoy L. Peterson on Mar. 9, 1965; and such compression also has theeffect, as described in these patents, of allowing the webs to be packedin cartons of less height than would otherwise be possible.

Referring to FIG. 8, it will be observed that the modified Z-foldedwebs, without interfolding, provide an edge on the top of the stackalong the longitudinal center line of the stack, which is a folded edgerather than a cut edge. With this arrangement, there is no oppositeedge, cut or otherwise, on the top surface of the stack; and a personmay easily grasp the folded edge on the top of a cut segment of the webstack for the purpose of removing the top web out of a carton, forexample, for the cut segment.

In addition, it will be noted that since the folded edge on the top ofthe stack extends to the longitudinal center line of the stack, thestack may be exactly one-half the width of each of the webs beforefolding. A stack, such as illustrated in FIG. 8, is shown positioned inFIG. 11 within a carton 34 having an oval shaped perforation line 3-5 inits top panel for the purpose of providing an opening in the top panelwhen the perforation line is broken. Since the FIG. 8 stack is equal inwidth to one-half the width of a tissue web prior to folding, the carton34 may be only slightly greater in width than this dimension.

The conventional tissues now on the market which are individuallyremovable from a carton are ordinarily C- folded, as illustrated in FIG.10, each tissue comprising a lower bottom fold k extending for the widthof the stack and upper narrower folds k and k A carton 34a for theC-folded tissues is slightly larger than the stack of tissues in widthand is also commonly provided with an oval shaped perforation line 35awhich provides an opening in the top panel for removal of the tissuesone at a time from the carton. A gap of about A inch is commonlyprovided between the inner cut edges of the folds k and k so as to allowa person reaching through the opening in the top panel to grasp one orthe other of the cut edges forming the ends of the folds k and k of theuppermost web segments. Due to this gap between the folds k and k thewidth of the stack of webs must be greater than one-half the width of aweb in its unfolded condition; and, therefore, both the width of theC-folded stack of webs as well as the width of the carton for the stacksegments must be greater than the widths of the stack of web segmentsand carton, respectively, using the modified Z-fold, as will be notedfrom comparing FIG. 10 with FIG. 11. Thus, a carton for the modifiedZ-folded tissues may be less space consuming than a carton for theconventional C-folded tissues.

With respect to the modified Z-folded tissues as interfolded,illustrated in FIG. 9, the Width of the stack also may be exactly equalto one-half the width of a web as contrasted to the C-folded tissues, astack of which has a width greater than one-half the web width.

The combination folding boards A B A B etc., which may be used to eitherprovide a modified Z-fold as illustrated in FIG. 8, or a conventionalinterfold as illustrated in FIG. 7, allow the machine to be used formaking either type of tissue stack with only a rethreading of webs tomake the change. In this connection, it may be desirable to utilize theFIG. 8 type of folding with relatively deep cartons, while utilizing theFIG. 7 interfolding with thinner cartons and simply by rethreading thesame machine, either type of folding may be produced, and two separatemachines are not necessary.

I claim:

1. A sheet material assembly comprising a stack of folded sheet materialwebs in which each of the webs has a first fold extending from a firstside edge of the stack to the second side edge of the stack, anintermediate fold extending from said first side edge of the stack to alongitudinal line intermediate the side edges and a third web foldextending from said longitudinal line back toward said first side edgeof the stack, said first fold of each of said webs being disposedbetween said first and said intermediate folds of the next succeedingunderlying web in the stack so that the webs are interfolded.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,698,823 1/1929 Rasmussen 206-571,980,059 11/1934 Housen 206-57 2,348,041 5/1944 Warner 22148 X STANLEYH. TOLLBERG, Primary Examiner

